Plant Talk

New Year Bouquets from the Garden - Camellias, Euphorbia, and Hebes

As bleak as your garden might appear when you're indoors peering out the windows, if you get outside and look closely, surely you'll find plenty to cut for a modest little New Year's bouquet. And there's something about the subtlety and freshness of bits and pieces from your own garden that seems to start the year off right.

I started with these little handmade bouquets as solstice gifts last week and have continued making them for the New Year's table.... 'Sasanqua' camellia, lonicera, a twig or two of coral bark maple. As much as anything, it's fun to putter outside on these dark days, and to try and create bouquets out of whatever there is to scavenge out there. You'll see hypericum in there, euphorbia, and red-trimmed hebe....no armature or foam, just the leaves and branches supporting each other in a casual tumble of winter....

Notice the border on the top photo? I'm playing around with a new photo app....watch my column in Pacific Northwest mag for an interview on iPhoneography with professional garden photographer David Perry...he recommended several apps, and none of them are Instagram....the interview runs in the Seattle Times in February. And in the meantime, I've been encouraged to use my iPhone (as if I wouldn't anyway...it's all I know how to do...) to take photos, and you'll see some new effects, I hope, as I mess around with these apps...

Hosta 'Blue Mouse Ears' - Preview of Great Plant Picks for 2013

New plants for the new year....I've been working on my annual column about the 2013 batch of Great Plant Picks from the Miller Botanical Garden. There are worse ways to spend the waning days of the year....and I love this year's theme of petite plants for the smaller garden.

I'd never heard of 'Blue Mouse Ears' until Richie Steffen of the Miller Garden sent me a photo of this charming dwarf hosta. It beat out tough competition to make this year's GPP list not only because of its compact size, but because it's considered one of the very best mini hostas available. Not only are its leaves a dusky, distinctive shade of blue, but it combines robust growth with diminutive size. Can you imagine a more perfect container plant? And yes, as you might suspect from the name, the leaves are rounded, with mice-like pointed tips.  

'Blue Mouse Ears' is more than cute, though. It's a tough plant, truly perenial, and sports lavender flowers atop short, stubby stems in summer. Really, this hosta is tiny...it grows all of about 6 - 8 inches tall in five years, and over time might form a clump a foot across....Slug resistance? No word on that .....I'd keep it elevated out of reach in a slippery-sided pot....

I'll debut a bunch more exciting GPP picks in my column, which will run in the Flower and Garden Show issue of Pacific Northwest in mid-February....and in the meantime, here's Hosta 'Blue Mouse Ears' for summer dreaming....

Photo by Richie Steffen

 

 

 

 

Happy Christmas....

We Live in Broadleaf Evergreen Heaven....Christmas Cuttings From the Garden

I'm avoiding poinsettias and cyclamen this year, and sticking to cuttings from the garden. Which is no sacrifice, believe me, because broadleaf evergreens are at their best out there.  Christmas isn't just about pine and cedar (although it's good to stick in a bit of both for their bristly texture and fresh scent).

There's such a lovely, drenching feeling and scent of winter when you cut, gather, and arrange  a big vase of greens and boughs. They center a room in a way flowers never can.

While I might succumb to a few stems of wine red lilies for the Christmas Eve table...this amalgam from the garden is so much more satisfying. They llast for a couple of weeks, and bring the freshness and the deep beauty of winter indoors. The glossy leaves of camellias gleam in candelight, and best of all, they're free for the picking.

Everything in this arrangement was cut from my postage-stamp sized garden....hedges, specimen trees, espaliers...all are fare game this time of year. Think of it as cold-weather pruning...

This butter-yellow vase is my new favorite (from Room and Board, it also comes in a soft, ethereal shade of periwinkle blue).

Coral bark maple forms the framework of the finished (well, never quite finished, always room for tweaking) arrangement, along with sasanqua camellia branches sporting some buds and flowers. Autumn ferns, pods of ligularia, cedar, pine, hellebores, and Daphne odora fill out the arrangement that'll last into the New Year....

Wing Flash and Bird Song - The Varied Thrush Graces Us With its Winter Presence

I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.

"We are nearer to Spring 
Than we were in September,” 
I heard a bird sing 
In the dark of December.    by Oliver Herford

Well, the world didn't end yesterday - we survived the 2012 solstice and here's a cheerful thought from BirdNote to help balance out the gloom of these short, dark days.

We see and hear much more of the Varied Thrush in winter than at any other time of year. While this thrush is usually solitary bird, in winter it gathers in flocks in the Puget Sound lowlands. You may well hear its eerie, metallic song (and might not even recognize it as an avian voice) more than you actually see the bird.

BirdNote host Ellen Blackstone tells me that the Varied Thrush (don't you love that name? Varied how? Compared to what??) is related to bluebirds and Swainson's Thrushes and robins. You may spot it hanging out with robins, eating mushy apples from the ground.

The song of the Varied Thrush has been described as "cool, dark, and secretive." Hear its song and learn more about this somewhat elusive garden resident on BirdNote.

Thanks to Tom Grey for the photos, and to Ellen for keeping us updated on birds...if birds are out there enjoying the garden, surely there's hope for spring...

The male Varied Thrush (top photo) is more colorful than the more subtle female...

 

Heronswood Renewal and Repair - Take a Look At What's Happening In Kingston

Santa visited the Northwest early this year when the S'Klallam tribe bought Heronswood. Thank you, thank you - gardeners are deeply grateful.

What a relief to have Heronswood out of the hands of George Ball.

The dramatic history of the Northwest's famous nursery and garden has fairy tale elements to it - Two young men build a garden and famous nursery out of nothing but their skill and hard work, its purchase by a wealthy nurseryman who turned out to be...well...problematic. The firing of founders Hinkley and Jones, Ball moving plants east, then precipitously closing Heronswood down. Then a long decline when no one really knew what was going on...all the elements of a classic tale...

Then...the surprise of the S'Klallam tribe stepping in to buy the languishing garden along with the Heronswood name.  I'm not making light of any of the travail and sadness of Heronswood's closing and decline. We thought we'd lost a genuine Northwest treasure, a beloved garden, the place that put us on the global gardening map.

But Heronswood is back in business. What kind of condition is it in? “There were six years of no one being there; it had been minimally maintained,” says Noel Higa, Economic Development Director of the S’Klallam tribe.

The tribe has ambitious plans to restore the garden and open it to the public. They're figuring out how to add native culture and art to the mix while staying true to the original garden.

Resurrection is underway with work parties, a Facebook page, and...I love this...a day that was dedicated to hosting gay marriages in the garden. What good karma, a sweet and joyous launch of the garden's second life.

Want to get involved?  "Like" Heronswood on Facebook, to stay updated on what's happening.  Anyone who'd like to volunteer in the new year can send an email to: heronswoodgardens@gmail.com

Here are a few photos of the initial workparty..courtesy of Lynne Harrison -

Dan Hinkley back in the garden he created so many years ago...

At this point a small group of former Heronistas, tribe members, and knowledgeable horticulturists are working with Dan to figure out where to start to bring the garden back to life.

Dried Arrangement Hosts the Surprise of a Little Visitor...

I have no idea how long this thumbnail-sized snail has been hanging out on this arrangement in my living room...

The bouquet of grasses and artichokes has dried, changed in texture and color, but held its looks all the weeks since it debuted here on the blog in early October....and it must have played host and offered camouflage for a visiting snail all this time.

I don't think he crawled through the French doors from the deck, across the carpet, scaled the table and then the arrangement....he must have come in on the artichokes or the miscanthus and been hanging out here with us for weeks....

I happened to have on my bifocals when I was adding the arum berries I scavenged out in the alley....and spotted our visitor.  He's welcome to stay, although I'm puzzled as to why he isn't as dessicated as the foliage he's chosen for a home...

 

Five Reasons Why Urban Farming Is The Most Important Movement Of Our Time

That title caught your attention didn't it? It's a blog post by urban gardener Ro Kumar that I hope is on its way to going viral.

I was interviewing Tim Hohn, Chair of the Horticulture Department at Edmonds Community College, for an upcoming story in the Seattle Times, and he told me about the piece. The importance of urban farming is on Tim's mind these days, because EDCC just recieved a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, to create a sustainable agriculture program. Hohn will administer the grant in partnership with Skagit Valley College, Seattle Central Community College, and Washington State University. More on this in the Seattle Times piece which will publish in January.

As soon as Tim told me about Kumar's story, I tracked it down. It's SO worth reading for a larger view of growing our own food, one backyard at a time..here's the first paragraph:

"While most other houses on my street have grass lawns, my yard sprouts zucchinis, tomatoes, pomegranates, kale, spinach, apples, figs, guavas, almonds, garlic, onion, strawberries, and more. Over 500 plant species all in all. We grow more than 3000 pounds of food per year on a plot of land the size of a basketball court—enough fruits and vegetables to feed my family of four year-round. Our house is part of a growing global movement of people involved in urban farming..."

Kumar goes on, clearly and persuasively, to explain why urban farming will transform the world.  His reasons range from nutrition to cultivating community, but his overarching argument is the hyper localism of gardening.

Every time gardeners stick a shovel in the ground, squeeze a handful of soil, check the thermometer or rain gauge, or choose varieites of seed, we're reminded that you garden right where you are. We've always exchanged information, swapped plants, met our neighbors over the fence - no one gardens alone. That's localism, and community.  And it's why urban farming can change the world...read more here.

What's Dan Hinkley Reading? Check Out "Book City" on Crosscut.com

Gardeners are readers...novels, plant catalogs, the latest nonfiction....and even, in Dan Hinkley's case, books he hopes will be written soon enough.

Dan was a graduate student at the Center for Urban Horticulture when I was hired to start the library there in 1985....and we've been talking books ever since....here's a published peek at that ongoing conversation....."Book City: Dan Brown is Formulaic Tripe"....

Planting Springtime...It's Not Too Late To Get Bulbs Into the Ground, Thank Goodness

I've never gotten my bulbs in the ground so late...I blame it on the weather. Warm, dry weather persisted so long that  the hydrangeas, helenium and asters lingered into late October. I couldn't clean them up when I was still picking them! 

Then we fell of the cliff into November eveyrthing out there was drenched, and I retreated indoors. In an intense little garden like mine, there's so much clean up that needs to be done to make space for bulbs to go in...it's not like there's empty ground just waiting to plant. It takes a leap of faith to get out there and work in windy, wet, cold weather.

Finally, I bundled up between rainstorms and managed to cut back hostas and perennials. I recaptured soil from land grabbing strawberries. I pulled out pumpkins, and dug out Alstroemeria as I do every autumn. Is it possible to rid of a garden of these persistent, pretty Peruvian lilies?

Here's the evidence...The Allium christophii went in at the front of the raised beds, the crocus are scattered beside pathways, in pots, and along the sides of the patio. The orange and purple tulips are stuffed just inches apart into the round feed troughs...and the exotic-looking peacock fritillaria are so expensive that there are just three of them in a big orange pot.

I never get over the miracle of sticking a brown, inauspicious looking lump of vegetative matter into the dirt, and by next Easter - a garden full of flowers. It's a miracle that fills me with wonder no matter how many years I've been lucky enough to witness the garden's springtime resurrection.

The cleaned out, cleaned up feed troughs, freshly stuffed with tulips in the bottom layer, crocus above.